Wellbeing & prevention
Good physical and emotional health is key to living a fulfilled life. When someone is struggling to cope, either physically or mentally, it can lead to more serious issues and have a negative impact on their life.
Being well means taking care of our physical, mental and emotional health. In good health, we feel more energetic, happier and can stay independent and live longer.
Sometimes things can have an effect on us in life that cause us to not feel well both physically and mentally and may cause us to act in a certain way that has a negative impact on our wellbeing.
This can particularly be the case for adults at risk of harm or radicalisation. There is lots of support for people in this situation and the information below helps us to recognise the signs of symptoms of abuse, including self-neglect, self-harm, suicide awareness and radicalisation.
Find out more on the East Riding Health and Wellbeing website
Cost of living - Help for Households
Welcoming places are being established across the East Riding to provide somewhere warm for residents to visit during the colder months.
Libraries will be opening their doors and grants are available for community groups to apply for in order to open their venues as welcoming places.
The Help for Households campaign aims to support residents in the East Riding needing financial help or struggling to manage.
Self-neglect
Self-neglect is a type of abuse that causes a wide range of behaviour including: neglecting to care for one’s personal hygiene, health or surroundings and includes behaviour such as hoarding.
This type of neglect can be either intentional or non-intentional and can result from any mental or physical illness that has an effect on your physical abilities, energy levels, attention, organisation skills or motivation.
More information on self-neglect on our abuse page
Keith's story: a personal and touching film about hoarding on YouTube
Keith's story: a personal and touching film about hoarding (YouTube)
Self-harm Awareness
Self-harm is when someone deliberately hurts themselves. It can include cutting, burning, hitting or bruising, poisoning, scratching, hair-pulling or overdosing.
Adults who self-harm aren’t usually trying to commit suicide or looking for attention (although self-harming can result in accidental death). Often, it is a way for the person to deal with overwhelming or distressing feelings and emotions. It’s a way of coping.
Some people use self-harm as a way to cope with anxiety, stress and overwhelming emotions. It is often a sign that there is an underlying problem. Self-harm can be really hard to understand but it is a lot more common than some people think.
The best thing to do is for the person to get help to deal with the underlying issues. Getting the right help is often the key to overcoming or managing self-harm.
For more information about self harm and how to protect the people in your life please see the LifeSIGNS (Self-Injury Guidance & Network Support) website which is an online, user-led charitable organisation, created to provide understanding about self-injury and provide information and support to people of all ages affected by self-injury across the UK.
LifeSIGNS (Self-Injury Guidance & Network Support) (external website)
Suicide Awareness
Suicide Facts and Figures
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Each day around 16 people take their life in the UK and Ireland
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In the UK, men are three times as likely to take their own lives than women
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In the UK, the highest suicide rate was for men aged 45-49.
Samaritans Suicide Statistics Report 2018 (external website)
If you are feeling suicidal, there are people you can talk to
- speak to a friend, family member or someone you trust
- call the Samaritans 24-hour support service on 116 123
- go to your nearest accident and emergency (A&E) department and tell the staff how you are feeling
- contact NHS 111
- make an urgent appointment to see your GP.
If someone tells you that they are feeling suicidal
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Stay Calm – It may be uncomfortable listening but try not to let your own emotional response prevent you from hearing what the person is saying and what their body language is telling you. Talking about self-harm and suicide does not increase the risks!
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Listen – Just being listened to can be a brilliant support and bring great relief to people, particularly if they have never spoken to anyone about their self-harming or suicidal thoughts before. The fact that they have chosen you to talk to means they feel comfortable speaking to you.
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Take Them Seriously – Do not ignore or dismiss the feelings or behaviours of someone nor see it as attention-seeking or being manipulative. Do not be judgemental
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Confidentiality – Do not keep concerns to yourself. Helping someone is a wonderful opportunity but it can also be stressful. If you are a professional, share your concerns with your line manager or safeguarding lead they will help you to consider and manage the risk.
Clarify whether or not there are immediate needs for medical attention or urgent help to keep the person safe and respond accordingly. For urgent medical attention call 999, for non-urgent medical help call 111 or the person's own GP.
Make sure you are available for the person for the following few days/weeks. If you are not available make sure they know where to seek support from.
There are some online training resources available for managers, practitioners and people who may know someone who is going through a period in their life where suicidal thoughts are overwhelming them. This training is called Suicide, Let’s Talk.
Preventing Radicalisation
Are you concerned about someone in your community who is at risks of radicalisation?
Prevent aims to safeguard adults at risk of harm from being radicalised to supporting terrorism or becoming terrorists themselves
Radicalisation is the process by which a person comes to support terrorism and extremist ideologies. If you are worried someone close to you is becoming radicalised act early and seek help. The sooner you reach out, the quicker the person you care about can be protected from being groomed and exploited by extremists.
Police forces across the country have specially trained Prevent officers who work with professionals in health, education, local authorities and charities, as well as faith and community groups to help vulnerable people move away from extremism. They are here to listen and offer help and advice. Receiving support is voluntary.
Friends and family are best-placed to spot the signs, so trust your instincts and share your concerns in confidence. They can help if you act early. You won't be wasting police time and you won’t ruin lives, but you might save them.
To find out more about how to help someone close to you visit Act Early (external website).
Prevent e-learning training
Prevent duty training: Learn how to support people vulnerable to radicalisation
The Home Office's e-learning training on Prevent was reviewed in July 2022 and provides new and improved awareness regarding how to support people vulnerable to radicalisation.
The Courses include:
- Course 1 - Awareness course
- Course 2 - Referrals course
- Course 3 - Channel or Prevent Multi-Agency Panel (PMAP) course
The courses are designed to equip you with inclusive, unbiased, and reliable information giving you the knowledge and confidence to support and safeguard the public against radicalisation.
The Home Office training courses are designed, and are appropriate for, staff working in sectors covered by the Prevent duty. These include education, health, local authorities, police, prisons, probation and youth justice
The course are fully accessible; include two animations and two real-life case studies focusing on Islamist and extreme-right wing behaviours
All courses are accessible via the gov.uk website (external website).
Prevent Referral Form
East Riding Prevent - Safeguarding Referral Form (word 84kb)
By sending this form you consent for it to arrive with your regional Prevent policing unit for a safeguarding triage. Wherever possible we aim to give you feedback on your referral. Please be aware, however, that this is not always possible due to data-protection considerations and other sensitivities.
Once you have completed this form, please email it to:
Prevent@humberside.pnn.police.uk and Prevent@eastriding.gov.uk
If you have any questions whilst filling in the form, please call (01482) 220751.
Prevent resources
Please see more prevent resource by access the document below:
Mental Capacity and the Mental Capacity Act
Mental capacity is our ability to make decisions about all aspects of our lives. This could be affected permanently or temporarily by an injury, a serious illness or a disability.
The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) (2005) protects those who lack capacity and empowers them to make decisions for themselves wherever possible. It applies to people over the age of 16.
The act explains in legal terms how to assess if someone has capacity to make their own decisions, and, if the person is unable to do this for themselves, how decisions should be made on their behalf.
It covers a wide range of decision making, from very complex decisions such as significant financial matters, medical treatment and wider welfare matters, to simpler decisions like deciding what to eat or what clothing to wear.
More detailed advice about assessing mental capacity and decision making can be found in the Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice (chapters 3, 4 and 5).
Find out more about future planning and Deprivation of Liberty.
Mental Capacity Act 2005
Useful websites
Useful documents
Mental Health Chat events
East Riding of Yorkshire Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership are keen to hear from people who have lived experienced of mental health issues or an interest in mental health.
Please see the flyer below to find out more about the Mental Health Chat events happening in 2023.
Report a concern
01377 241273
amph.outofhoursteam@eastriding.gov.uk